Wayne Rooney certainly isn’t the first big player to fall out with the famously ruthless Manchester United manager. From Roy Keane to David Beckham, here are the Red Devils who crossed tridents with Ferguson – and inevitably lost.

Manchester City delighted in winding up Alex Ferguson and the United fans after landing Carlos Tevez (PA)

Carlos Tevez Tevez was regarded as a living legend by Manchester United fans, who lauded him for his touch, pace, insane work rate and quality goals. But he went to the blue side of the city after his relationship with manager Sir Alex Ferguson fractured beyond repair.

Tevez claimed that United dragged their heels over a permanent deal, Ferguson fired back that Tevez had ignored his texts about sorting a deal out.

One ‘Welcome To Manchester’ poster later and Tevez is on the Eastlands’ payroll.

Ruud Van NistelrooyPrecisely why Dutchman Van Nistelrooy fell out with Fergie is unknown. His form was not in question, having netted 150 goals in 219 games between April 2001 and May 2005, but he found himself on the bench against Charlton for the final game of the 2005/06 season. Then he found himself playing for Real Madrid.

A training-ground spat with Cristiano Ronaldo is the much-quoted reason for his departure, something that’s given extra weight by Ferguson’s explanation for Nistelrooy’s omission for the Charlton game: ‘There have been a couple of issues during the week that concerned us in terms of the spirit of the club.’

David Beckham

Flying-boot-gate: David Beckham sports a graze (Picture: Jack Dawes)

Beckham’s eyebrow took the brunt of Lord Ferg’s wrath after a 2-0 loss to Arsenal in the fifth round of the FA Cup in February 2003. The manager was so furious that he kicked a boot, which flew into Beckham’s face, just above the eye.

However, it was not just this incident that led to Golden Balls being sold to Real Madrid that year.

In his autobiography My Side, Beckham candidly explained that his celebrity lifestyle wound-up his boss: ‘The gaffer had had enough. I’d grown up as a person and he didn’t seem to like what I’d become.’

Roy Keane

Keane as mustard: Roy in his Manchester United playing days (Picture: Daily Mail)

Of all the players to have fallen out with the club’s Glaswegian overseer, Roy Keane was probably the most iron-willed of them.

He was also never afraid to speak his mind, which is what ultimately led to him leaving the club after 12 years in 2005.

He argued with Ferguson over the standards of a pre-season training camp in Portugal, admitted on air that he’d ‘consider playing elsewhere’ and publicly criticised some of his team-mates.

After a 4-1 defeat to Middlesbrough he fired off this stinging judgement of defender Rio Ferdinand: ‘Just because you are paid £120,000-a-week and play well for 20 minutes against Tottenham, you think you are a superstar.’

In the end he left by mutual consent.

Jaap StamHe was the write stuff on the pitch – but certainly, for Mr F, not off it. In the Dutchman’s autobiography Head to Head, Stam admitted that he’d been approached by Manchester United in 1998 without permission from his club, PSV Eindhoven – he also criticised a few of the United players.

However, Ferguson, three years ago, claimed that Stam’s clumsy diplomacy had nothing to do with his departure: ‘At the time (Stam) had just come back from an achilles injury and we thought he had just lost a little bit. We got the offer from Lazio, £16.5m for a centre back who was 29. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse.’